The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has issued notices to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, finance secretary, law secretary and others and sought reply from them in a petition filed against appointment of Security Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) chairman.
A single bench of IHC led by Justice Athar Minullah took up for hearing petition challenging the appointment of SECP Chairman M Zafarul Haq Hijazi.
GM Chaudhry counsel for the petitioner Riaz Ahmad appeared in the court and took the plea federal government had appointed SEP chairman in violation of Constitution.
The government appointed Hijazi as commissioner on December 17, 2014 and later appointed him as SECP chairman.
He argued that finance minister cannot appoint SEP chairman because federal minister had said in his oath he would not demonstrate any partiality in making any appointment.
The court was told that SECP Chairman Hijazi had remained class fellow of finance minister. Hijazi was appointed as commissioner in 1999 but he was removed by the then prime minister Shaukat Aziz from his office.
The court was requested to nullify the appointment of chairman SECP besides ordering for recovery of the amount paid to the SECP chairman from national exchequer.